A couple recent requests for the Celestra from Battlestar Galactica have gotten me motivated to get that project finished up. The original release of this model was on the forum at zealot.com. Through a couple hosting changes and misadventures the files for the small version of the Celestra were lost. I have cleaned up the unfold and made a few revisions and created both lined and unlined versions of the model. The original large version of the model is also included. The assembly instructions are simple, consisting of a set of images indicating part numbers and the general assembly sequence.

If you build it I’d love to have a picture of the finished project to use on the download page.

Recently I was asked by the Cranbrook and District Arts Council if I would lead an Introduction to Origami workshop. Since then I’ve been putting together a plan and folding like crazy testing things out. Naturally, along the way I’ve been running across dozens of great models I want to fold. The gallery below shows some of the models we’ll be doing in the workshop, along with a few I just had to do while I was digging around looking for material.

The butterfly from GoOrigami.com is very easy to fold but looks great, and will be used to introduce the waterbomb base. The piano and star box are traditional models that we’ll be doing in the workshop to illustrate basic concepts and practice squash folds. The traditional crane will be the ultimate goal of the workshop. If time permits we’ll do the samurai helmet and fish, and others.

Flowers are always a great item to fold, making nice gifts, and offering limitless options for presentation and display. The lotus flower below was in the instructions included in a package of origami paper that was given to me. Also pictured are the traditional lily, the Primula by Mitsonubu Sonobe (diagrams found at happyfolding.com), a five-pointed variation of the traditional lily created by John Montroll, and the Zhoubi bowl by Philip Chapman-Bell. The available links I could find for the Zhoubi bowl diagrams were all broken, so I emailed Philip and he replied with a new link to the diagram. They are released under a Creative Commons license so I’ve taken the liberty of hosting a copy here.

Enjoy!

A simple but lovely butterfly from goorigami.com

Piano, Samurai Helmut and Star Bowl

Traditional fish based on the Samurai Helmut

Traditional Crane

Lotus flower

Primula by Mitsonubu Sonobe

Traditional Lily

Five-pointed Lily

Created by Philip Chapman-Bell this stylish bowl is fairly easy to fold.

Just added to the Battlestar Galactica page is the Snowram version of Revell-Fan’s Landram. Along with the new version comes an optional luggage rack, and enhanced headlights that can be used on any of the Landram versions. The enhanced headlights are intended to be glued over top of the original lights so you could even apply them to a model you have already built.

Our good friend Revell-Fan has kindly provided me with this excellent model of the blaster from the mini-series “V” to fill the void in the weapons category here at StevesPaper. I’ve also got a weapon project in the works that I hope to post soon. I didn’t think of it earlier, but also in the weapons category is Revell-Fan’s amazing model of the Colonial Blaster, part of the Colonial Warrior’s Survival Pack. Check them out, download them, build them, and send me some photos. I’d love to add some pictures of other peoples builds to the site.

I just finished this great Christmas decoration from Julius Perdana over at Paper-Replika.com. The Santa bi-plane is a nicely detailed kit, but as released it’s quite large. I intended to use it as a tree ornament so I printed it at two-pages per sheet so it’s half size. The finished (half-size) model has a wing span of about 14 cm. (a little under 6 in.), and at this size some of the parts were pretty small. I wouldn’t recommend making it any smaller. If you want a nice decoration for next year keep this model in mind.

A couple months ago I saw the movie “The Hunger Games”. I enjoyed the movie and while digging around on the internet later I ran across pictures of the pin the main character wore. I thought it would be fun to try and make one using layers of paper to build it up. I used one of the pictures as the base and whipped up a pattern over the next couple days as a test.

Boxed set with pin

In the meantime I happened to be in the local Wal-Mart and saw this special boxed edition of the movie that came with a pin and just had to buy it.

The pin that came with the movie was somewhat different than the picture I had based my first version on, so I had to make another one using a photo of my new pin as the base. The results are shown below.

All in all they both turned out well, and both have their appeal. I’ve glued small, strong magnets to the back to use them as fridge magnets. The pin itself has been brushed with a brush on super glue (CA glue) to strengthen it. They are surprisingly tough.

Both versions are available in the downloads section. Enjoy, and if you make one please send me a picture of it. I love to see my work being made by others.

Hey there Battlestar Galactica fans. This is just a quick note to let you know that Revell-Fan has updated some of the files for the Colonial Raptor. Apparently there were some extra glue tabs on a couple parts, and a texture problem in the Red Med-evac and Green versions of the raptor. The assembly instructions have been updated slightly as well, and a display stand has been added. The display stand is available in several color schemes, and a plain white version that you can get creative with. Make sure you only print the pages you need.

The BSG Fleet Page has been updated so if you download any of the files from there you will get the most recent version.

If you downloaded the Red or Green versions of the raptor prior to today (Sep 23/12) you can download the appropriate patch file here, or go to the fleet page and get a whole new package.

I’m very excited to announce this latest addition to the Battlestar Galactica Fleet – the Colonial Raptor. Revell-Fan has done a fantastic job developing this kit, and gone the extra mile to make it in four different color schemes. The desert camo scheme is shown here, and the kit is also available in gray, green, and med-evac red. Many thanks to Revell-Fan for another fine addition to the fleet.

It never ceases to amaze me what some people will do in order to scam other people out of their hard earned money. Take Alice for example. Have a look at these great looking models at Alice Papermodels. A fine collection of Battlestar Galactica ships ranging in price from a mere $8.00 US to an impressive $79.00 US for this beautiful 3 foot Battlestar Galactica model.

Battlestar Galactica built by Stephen Irl

Now, if you open that second link and compare the image to the one at right, even the most casual observer will notice a striking similarity. It is in fact an image copied (stolen) directly from this web site, advertising (for $79.00 US) the very model that you can download from here, FOR FREE! At least 13 of the FREE models you can get here are being sold on Alice’s site. In fact, I recognize many of the models there and would bet any amount that every single one has been pirated from some other designer on the internet.

This enterprising person is collecting FREE paper model kits from designers all over the world, and selling them for big bucks. I can only hope that the poor suckers who are interested in these models are smart enough to search around before they shell out their hard-earned money to crooks like Alice.

So, it’s up to you. You can go to my download page and get it for free, or you can go ask Alice and pay big bucks for the same thing. I wonder if she took the red pill or the blue pill?